Disclaimer: I don't own tvd, if belongs to Julie Plec, L.J Smith and the CW.
I apologise for the shortness of this chapter, but it is necessary to get to the next part of Damon's story. The next chapter is definetly going to be longer.
Warning: Slight Delena bashing.
She loves him.
He knows she does, with every fibre of his being. She's the only thing he's got left in this world, and she picked him over his brother.
Yeah, just thinking that sounds kind of dickish, probably is, but she loves him, and to him that's the answer to everything. She is his everything.
And it doesn't matter if or when they're having problems because she's the one thing he's certain of, and she is the end of his eternity.
Damon whistles as he walks down the street, an almost hopeful spring in his step. The next dilemma seems almost improbable. Now the Ripper virus is cured, eternity is a promise again.
He walks, still jovial, towards the Grill, and is about to step in, when he freezes, seeing a scene he never thought he would ever see.
Caroline and Stefan are sitting together at a table, their drinks remaining untouched as he grins manically at her frantic expressions. He's never seen his brother so happy, and it's not the thing he's worried about.
It's the love of his life staring at them with a shocked and wistful face.
The sight could break him into a million pieces. He loves her. He loves her so much that it is something he can never quite fathom, can never quite get his head around. Just being near her is enough to satisfy him forever.
And she is still in love with his brother.
He can still feel it. The agony of loving her from afar as his brother loved her and she loved him. It's something he never wants to feel again, but somehow it's still there. Somehow, he knows it never left. He swallows the bitter lump of jealousy in his throat, tries to shove the feeling away and come up with a thousand excuses for the longing on Elena's face, but there is none.
The agony returns full-force.
After everything, every declaration of love, every kiss, every promise, everything he's done for her, he will never be enough.
It's always gonna be Stefan.
Yeah, he should have believed that when she told him.
The door opens, making him jump, and he skitters out of the way into the corner as somebody leaves, eyes fixated on the love triangle playing out right in front of him.
Tessa was right, he silently mocks himself, as Caroline and Stefan stand up to leave, passing by Elena as they do so. He doesn't know why he's torturing himself like this, torturing himself watching the love of his life pine after the same man she always, but maybe he wants, even just a little but, to see how this plays out.
Elena is still staring at them, even as they walk past her. She looks at Stefan, almost earnestly, which he returns with a glare so icy that it would be funny if it weren't aimed at the girl Damon loves, before wrapping an arm around Caroline's waist and grabbing the door.
He hates her. Damon realises as he watches them walk away. The irony of it is almost enough to make him hysterical. Elena moved on, with him, and still, Stefan pined for her, until one day, he didn't. And the day he fell in love with Caroline Forbes was the day Elena realised that she wanted him back. Only now he hates her, and Damon has no idea where he is supposed to fit into this. What this sick love triangle has turned into, and if it will ever end. Maybe it never will. The love story of Elena Gilbert and Stefan Salvatore at its best, and Damon Salvatore the obstacle always pushed aside.
Why couldn't it ever be him? Damon had sacrificed so much for her, had given her so much of his soul that there is now nothing left for him. And yeah, he had done some horrible things to her loved ones, but she had said she'd forgiven him, and in the end, he guesses he just wants her to tell him the truth. That Stefan was still in her heart. Or at least that she loved them both. But instead, she's hidden it, buried it down deep for all these years, and now she doesn't even realise what everyone else is now seeing: that she can't do it forever.
She's consumed by it. The power of loving and destroying two brothers, two who would love her and protect her for eternity, until it burns. Elena Gilbert, though unintentionally, he'll give her that, will never stop breaking hearts. And the saddest part of the story?
He loves her for it.